I’ve spent a large part of today getting ready for next
Sunday’s Family Service at YWBC. We’re continuing to look at the theme of
prayer, and posing the question, ‘What should we ask for?’
One of the passages we’re looking at is 1 Kings 3, and the
famous story of King Solomon’s prayer for wisdom. The opening chapters of 1
Kings are not pleasant reading – Solomon does not have a clear path to the
throne and his power is consolidated only after a number of violent deaths,
including that of his brother Adonijah and his father’s military commander
Joab. The chapters make little attempt to hide the fact that the trail of
responsibility for these murders ultimately leads back to Solomon.
But in chapter 3, we have a very different portrait of the
King, to whom God appears in a dream. God instructs Solomon to ‘Ask what I
should give you.’ Reading Solomon’s reply, I’m particularly struck by one claim
which he makes: ‘I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come
in.’ Considering the guile and ruthlessness Solomon has just shown in order to
secure power, these words demonstrate either breathtaking nerve before God or a
genuine humility in his presence, or both.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to make judgements about
Solomon. I wonder if all of us have played this game at one time or another,
presenting ourselves as innocent victims before God, failing to acknowledge
completely our own culpability where things have gone wrong. Perhaps, God is
gracious enough to see beyond this sort of self-deception, recognising it as
part-and-parcel of the human condition. He is certainly approving of Solomon’s
request for wisdom, granting him ‘a wise and discerning mind.’
And yet the Solomon story does not work out well. For all his
apparent humility in asking for wisdom, it’s hard to escape the feeling that a
basic instinct for power and wealth is never really dealt with in his life.
Ultimately, his life is not one characterised by humble rule or justice.
Instead, he comes as acquisitive, for power, for riches, for women. It’s
telling that when God appears again to Solomon in 1 Kings 9 the message
delivered to him is one of warning about the danger of falling away.
So I wonder if 1 Kings 3 offers insights on prayer at all
sorts of levels. At face value, we’re taught to ask for what is right. But
beyond that there’s another lesson, that if our prayers don’t really reflect a
true depth of changed character then their long-term impact may be much less
than might otherwise be expected.
